KITCHENER - Rohan Hunigan was obviously
out of touch with reality when he slit his pregnant
girlfriend's throat with a kitchen knife, his lawyer
argued yesterday.

Two psychiatrists have testified in
Superior Court in Kitchener that Hunigan shouldn't be
held criminally responsible for the death of Vanessa
Sismar, 24, because he suffered from schizophrenia.

But in his closing submissions, defence
lawyer Steve Gehl said expert opinions aren't even
necessary to see that Hunigan, 38, was "disconnected"
from events as they unfolded at a Kitchener apartment on
June 24, 2005.

He cited evidence from an eyewitness --
a friend of Sismar's named Nordia Gentles -- that
Hunigan didn't seem to be angry when he attacked his
girlfriend after overhearing an innocent conversation
about giving an elderly woman a fish.

Hunigan seized on the fish story while
ranting to Gentles that Sismar was evil and wicked to
him.

"They are not a response to anything,"
Gehl said of the comments. "They demonstrate no sense,
no logic. They are totally disconnected from
everything."

Hunigan has admitted killing Sismar --
then about six months pregnant -- while she was making
dinner for her six-year-old son from a previous
relationship.

He pleaded not guilty to second-degree
murder, however, on the grounds he wasn't criminally
responsible for the brutal killing due to mental
illness.

The onus is on the defence to prove, on
a balance of probabilities, that Hunigan didn't
appreciate his actions or know they were wrong.

Crown prosecutor Theresa Donnelly has
suggested Hunigan was an angry, jealous man who blamed
Sismar for his impending deportation and knew what he
was doing despite his schizophrenia.

It is possible to have a major mental
illness and still be criminally responsible based on
state of mind at the time a crime is committed.

Hunigan was on probation for beating up
Sismar about a year earlier and had recently been
ordered deported to his native Jamaica for assaulting a
previous spouse.

Sismar repeatedly reconciled with
Hunigan, but had tried to break off their tumultuous
relationship the day before she died.

There has also been evidence Hunigan
wasn't taking medication he was prescribed for
depression and psychosis.

Gehl argued it made no sense for Hunigan
to kill his pregnant girlfriend since she represented
his best hope of appealing his deportation order.

He also stressed reports from
co-workers, doctors, friends, Sismar and others that
Hunigan heard voices, said he could read minds and
obsessed over an imagined conspiracy against him.

In a letter Sismar wrote soon after
Hunigan beat her up in 2004, for instance, she detailed
bizarre behaviour including accusations she was using
witchcraft to poison him.

"I don't know anything about
witchcraft," she wrote.

"I don't even know why he would think I
do."

Gehl said Hunigan's actions immediately
after the killing also revealed a mentally ill man.

After slitting Sismar's throat in front
of Gentles, Hunigan calmly followed her outside the
Victoria Street South building, called 911 to report she
was dying, laid down beside her after she collapsed and
rubbed her back.

Hunigan then got up and smoked a
cigarette on the steps while waiting for the police.
When they arrived, he told them he didn't know what had
happened.

The hearing was scheduled to continue
today with final arguments by prosecutors.